Selvedge straightening mechanism



Nov. 19, 1957 w. a. QUICK ETAL 2,813,325

SELVEDGE STRAIGHTENING MECHANISM Filed Sept. 7, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 ".I mwfl/ raau/mm mum amzsolr INVENTORS Nov. 19, 1957 w. G. QUICK ETAL 2,813,325

SELVEDGE STRAIGHTENING MECHANISM Filed Sept. '7, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 R N w/ Mill/MI a. 00m: m mum/v 0. mso/v,

IN VEN TORI ZMJJ/ Nov. 19, 1957 w. G. QUICK ET AL 2,813,325

SELVEDGE STRAIGHTENING MECHANISM Filed Sept. 7, 1955 s Sheets-Sheet s 'IIIIVE'AE.

United States Patent SELVEDGE STRAIGHTENING MECHANISM William G. Quick, Lookout Mountain, and William O. Wilson, Chattanooga, Tenn., assignors to Kingsboro Mills, Inc., Chattanooga, Tenn., a corporation of New York Application September 7, 1955, Serial No. 532,913

4 Claims. (Cl. 26-57) As is well known to those familiar with the art, during the dyeing of tricot and other knitted as well as woven fabrics, there is a tendency for the selvedge edges of the material to curl when in wet condition, making it diflicult to properly enter the material in the tentering machine as it passes into the drier for finishing the operations. It has been a problem to remove the curl orirregularities from the edges of the material in entering the edges on the needles or pins of the tentering frame as near to the edge as possible in the interest of conservation as Well as uniformity of the fabric.

The primary object of this invention is to provide mechanical means for uncurling or straightening out the selvedge at the time it is engaged with the pins or needles in order that the material may pass into the drier properly held in flattened condition and with the edges properly straightened out and relieved of all curl and wrinkle.

A further object is to provide means wholly automatic and reliable in operation to bring about this desired result, the speed of operation of which is considerably increased over others seeking the same result, and limited in such speed by the drying capacity of the machine with which it is associated.

A still further object is to provide means for removing the curl from the fabric as it passes to the tentering frame and which may be readily adjusted to adapt the device to fabrics of varying thicknesses, or to fabrics whose peculiarities or characteristics produce varying more or less curl in the selvedge.

With the foregoing objects in view, together with others which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention resides in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts, all as will be described more fully hereinafter, illustrated in the drawing, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view showing one side of the feed or intake end of a conventional tentering machine with the selvedge uncurling device of our invention associated therewith,

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the uncurling attachment detached from the machine,

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the attachment and illushating the manner in which it operates to uncurl or straighten out the selvedge,

Fig. 4 is a detail view, partly in section, illustrating the mounting of an uncurling head,

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken through the lower end of one of the rotatable standards for the uncurling head and illustrating the manner in which it is constructed and assembled, and

Fig. 6 is a horizontal sectional view taken through the spaced rotatable shafts or standards of the uncurling device and illustrating the manner in which the heads operate upon the fabric to bring about the uncurling action and to maintain the same in uncurled or flattened condition as it enters the tentering frame.

The present illustration and description is of a single ing heads.

ICC

unit for uncurling or straightening out the selvedge atone side of the fabric sheet, and it will be understood that each edge of the fabric will be operated upon by identical mechanism in order that both edges of the fabric may be straightened out simultaneously as it enters the tentering frame. Inasmuch as the present invention is an attachment for tentering machines now in use and whose structures are well known to those familiar with the art, only so much of the tentering machine is illustrated and described as will be necessary to a full and complete understanding of the operation of the uncurling mechanism.

The tentering machine is provided at each of its lateral edges with a shaft 10 driven by a sprocket chain or other means 11 and provided with a roll or wheel. over which passes the upper reach of a belt 12 moving longitudinally of the tentering frame and carrying upstanding pins or needles 13 to engage with the edge of the fabric 14 as it is fed in wet condition to the tentering machine fordrying operations.

The attachment of our invention includes a flat supporting base 15 disposed at the forward or feed end of the tentering frame and over which the adjacent edge of the fabric 14 passes. This base is provided with a pair of spaced upstanding bracket arms 16 to which are connected forwardly projecting supporting blocks 17 having verti cally disposed slots in their outer edges to slidably receive bearing heads 18 of substantially cylindrical shape whose axes are disposed at oblique angles to the base 15. Each of these heads is provided with an axial bore 19 through which a shaft 20 extends, ball bearings 21 being employed to rotatably support these shafts in their respective bear: Each shaft has secured to its lower end as by a nut 22 a brusher head 23 of substantially cylindrical shape whose lower face is disposed at right angles to its axis, while the upper end of each shaft has afiixed thereto a pulley 24 over which passes a drive belt 25 trained over a drive pulley 26 afiixed to a stub shaft 27 near the rear end of the supporting base and which is provided with a gear 28 driven by the pinion 29 from a conventional motor 30 secured to the motor supporting bracket 31 afiixed to the supporting base.

Each of the upstanding arms16 is also provided with a forwardly projecting bearing member 32 which rotatably supports an upstanding adjusting shaft 33 having its lower end threadedly engaged in a finger 34- projecting rearwardly from the adjacent bearinghead 18. From this construction it is apparent that rotary movement applied to the adjusting shafts 33 will cause the-bearing heads 18 to rise or fall depending uponthe direction of rotation of the shafts 33. Moreover, this arrangement permits the spaced shafts 20 to be vertically adjusted independently of one another.

It will be observed, particularly with reference to Figs. 1, 3 and 4, that the shafts 20 are maintained in parallelism in spaced relationship but at oblique angles to the base 15 so that only one edge of the brusher heads 23 will engage the edge of a fabric passing along the upper surface of the supporting base 15 as it is fed to the tentering frame. Each of the brusher heads is provided with spaced flexible teeth 35 so that the fabric will be contacted by these teeth when rotary movement is applied to the shafts 20. The inclination of the shafts 20 and the direction of rotation is such that the flexible teeth 35 carried by the brusher heads 23 will only contact and bear upon the fabric in a direction laterally and outwardly of the fabric sheet 14 as it passes to the tentering frame, and in so doing will uncurl and remove all wrinkles from the fabric at the edge thereof and will maintain the fabric in this flattened or straight condition until it reaches the travelling belt 12 to be impaled upon the needles 13, whereupon the edge of the fabric in this straightened condition will be maintained free of wrinkles or curling as it passes into the tentering frame. To this end, the shafts 20 are so mounted as to have their centers disposed slightly beyond the longitudinal alignment of the pins or needles 13 carried by the tentering machine belt. Adjustments in substantially vertical directions may be made of the shafts by operating the adjusting screws 33 in the manner heretofore described, to compensate for varying thicknesses of fabric material to be operated upon, or to adapt the uncurling device to fabrics Whose peculiarities or characteristics produce more or less curl in the selvedge.

As has been heretofore stated, an attachment of the character described is applied at each side of the tentering frame in order that both edges of the fabric fed to the machine are treated simultaneously, it being understood that the shafts 20 at opposite sides of the fabric rotate in difierent directions in order that an outward lateral stretching or uncurling operation is provided at each side of the machine. The drive mechanism here described may be synchronized with the mechanism for driving the tentering machine so that their starting and stopping operations, as well as their speed, may be synchronized. The speed with which the attachment will operate to uncurl and straighten out the selvedge prior to its contact with the tentering frame pins will be limited to the capacity of the ability of the tentering frame to carry out the drying process. The flexible strip rubber or plastic teeth 35 will contact the fabric only at such position of the brusher head as will bring about an outward uncurling of the selvedge and maintain the edge thus straightened as the fabric advances to the tentering machine and the fabric edges are secured thereto by engagement over the upstanding pins or needles 13.

We claim:

1. In combination with a tentering machine having a travelling belt provided with a plurality of spaced upstanding pins arranged in alignment longitudinally of said belt; a supporting base disposed in substantially the same plane with said belt in advance of the feed end thereof and over which the fabric passes to said belt, a shaft rotatably mounted in upstanding position above said base with its axis disposed at an oblique angle to said face and juxtaposed to the path of travel of said pins, a head on the lower end of said shaft disposed at right angles to the latter and projecting beyond said path, flexible teeth on the under face of said head to engage cloth material pass ing over said base to said belt, means for axially adjusting said shaft, and means for rotating said shaft.

2. In combination with a tenterin'g machine having a travelling belt provided with a plurality of spaced upstanding pins arranged in alignment longitudinally of said belt; a supporting base disposed in substantially the same plane with said belt in advance of the feed end thereof and over which the fabric passes to said belt, a shaft rotatably mounted in upstanding position above said base at an oblique angle to said base and with its axis juxtaposed to the line of said pins, a circular head secured axially on the lower end of said shaft with one edge thereof projecting beyond said line, flexible teeth on the under face of said head to engage fabric material passing over said base to said belt, and means for axially adjusting said shaft.

3. In combination with a tentering machine having a travelling belt provided with a plurality of spaced upstanding pins arranged in alignment longitudinally of said belt; a supporting base disposed in substantially the same plane with said belt in advance of the feed end thereof and over which the fabric passes to said belt, a pair of brackets arranged in spaced parallelism in upstanding position upon said supporting base, blocks secured to said brackets, bearing heads adjustably mounted in said blocks with their axes disposed at oblique angles to said base, shafts rotatably mounted in said bearing blocks, circular brusher heads mounted on the lower ends of said shafts to engage at one side with said supporting base, and means for adjusting said bearing heads in said blocks.

4. In combination with a tentering machine having a travelling belt provided with a plurality of spaced upstanding pins arranged in alignment longitudinally of said belt, a supporting base disposed in substantially the same plane with said belt in advance of the feed end thereof and over which the fabric passes to said belt, a pair of brackets secured to and rising from said supporting base in spaced parallelism, a bearing block secured to each of said brackets, bearing heads having their axes disposed at oblique angles to said base slidably mounted for vertical movement in said blocks, a shaft rotatably mounted in each of said bearing heads, said shafts having their lower ends disposed substantially in the line of travel of the pins of said belt, adjusting screws rotatably supported by said blocks and connected with said bearing heads, a motor carried by said supporting base, belt pulleys secured to said shafts, and a belt passing over said pulleys and driven by said motor.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,128,377 Richardson Aug. 30, 1938 2,510,313 Houth et al a- June 6, 1950 2,612,676 Sidore Oct. 7, 1952 2,674,023 Foley Apr. 6, 1954 2,750,650 Laurie June 19, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 707,053 Great Britain Apr. 14, 1954 

